No truer words to live by

Felicia Chan from Manchester, in the United Kingdom, writes: “Happy 20th anniversary! I seem to be taking just as long to get through the book and am only about halfway through several years after picking it up. Taking in a book at this pace is very unusual for me, but for some reason, I have found that it has not been one to speed through. In fact, it seems to find me when the occasion calls for it. I can sometimes leave it unread for weeks or months and then suddenly pick it up again only to find in the next passage the answer I seem to need for whatever I’m dealing with in the moment.

Our modern life demands so much speed, I feel that taking my time over this text is not merely a luxury and a treat, but also a liberation. A liberation from what happens at ‘the end’, from how the story turns out, in more ways than one.

Life itself is about many ends and beginnings, many births and many deaths. I birth new thoughts, new behaviours, new attitudes to things as much as old attitudes, beliefs and fears die out when I let them.

As a daily reminder, this passage from the book is now permanently inscribed on a sticky on my computer desktop:’Come to the path as humorously aware as possible of the baggage you will be bringing with you: your lacks, fantasies, failings and projections. Blend, with a soaring awareness of what your true nature might be, a down-to-earth and level-headed humility, and a clear appreciation of where you are on your spiritual journey and what still remains to be understood and accomplished.’
No truer words to live by.”
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